Monday, January 13, 2014

Rational Apathy – The
Slow Death of Outdoor Recreation

By Del & Stacie Albright

America
has become a society of media hype, slanted education and brain washing,
starting with kids in daycare school learning to hug trees, tolerate
excessively and not listen to their parents’ teaching.At the same time, interests like outdoor
recreation are being pushed aside for looming other priorities, some real, and
some media-induced distractions purposely intended to keep us spinning in
circles. We quickly lose sight of our passions and don’t even realize there is
a slow death occurring.

One
of our heroes, Chris W. Cox, NRA-ILA Executive Director recently wrote about
“rational apathy” when it comes to the erosion of Second Amendment Rights (gun
ownership issues). In his January 2014 column he talked of how people can
be concerned about only so many things at once, “so unless they perceive an
immediate threat to their own interests, they ignore small infringements on
their rights, allowing them to accumulate over time,” Mr. Cox said.
Certainly, this is a slow death for outdoor rights and access, particularly in
our off-road world.

America
is being distracted politically at nearly every turn. When something
life-changing or threatening occurs, it seems we have something more pressing
and near-and-dear to our hearts to deal with – and I’ll leave it to you to fill
in the political blanks. We are at war, but all of a sudden our
housing market collapses. We lose people overseas and the economy looms
over our very ability to earn a living. Unemployment jumps off the
charts, and all of a sudden a state enacts a law restricting detachable
magazines in rifles. And the distractions continue on and on.

So
yes, we get rationally apathetic. Rational means we have reason, or
understanding. Apathetic means not having much emotion or interest. So
when we combine these two terms, we see some Americans justifying – or
rationalizing – not paying right now their membership dues in organizations, or
not making donations right now to charities of concern, and in general being
distracted by other issues that seem more pressing. In the meantime, the
slow death permeates every crease and corner – eventually destroying a part of
our rights and access.

In
reality life gets in the way and we are all distracted by one thing or
another. It’s been interesting to watch how there are plenty of scandals
going on and the media is constantly using distraction tactics. Remember
Benghazi, Fast N Furious, and Extortion 17; and did Osama Bin Laden’s body
really get a burial at sea? Every one of these topics and issues has had
their share of smoke and mirrors as well as media hype, while putting us in
media overload. So once again we go
about our everyday lives of working, trying to sort out our priorities, and
surviving by telling ourselves that somebody else will take care of it and that
there is only so much we can do.

Meanwhile,
the anti-access busy-bodies who are passionately dedicated to shaping the world
in their own exclusionary elitist likeness continue to chip away at our rights
and freedoms. Much of the media and
Hollywood types jump right in and “educate” us in the ways we “should” know –
their way. We must moderate them and in some cases, we must stop them. We must not drop our passion in the outdoor
sports we love. In fact, may we suggest, “Pass On the Passion” – keep it
alive. Pass it on to kids; pass it on to
elected officials; and pass it on to your favorite organizations fighting with
you.

The
key may be to focus on what your primary passions are. Maybe it’s gun rights
and off-road; maybe it’s land rights and
access and the kids ball team; whatever it is, stay in the game and do
something about saving your passions with a once-a- week commitment. Or consider our “One for One Proposal” (http://www.delalbright.com/articles/one.htm)
which suggests for every fun, outdoor day you enjoy, you write one letter, or
make one phone call, or attend one meeting about landuse/politics. Or make one donation to your favorite group
like BlueRibbon Coalition or your state, sport-specific organization.

Please do not let life’s distractions and
myriad of priorities contribute to your losses and the slow death of outdoor
recreation. If we pass on the passion and keep our rights and freedoms in the
forefront of our lives, we can stop the slow death! The cure is to not lose sight of your rights
and freedoms!

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

I cut my landuse teeth on OFF-ROAD INTERNET forums – listening to what you have to say – going on 12 years. But now I have the ability to take what I’ve learned from you and apply it to reshaping our landuse battles nationwide. With the support of the BRC Board of Directors, I am the new Director of Operations for BRC, charged with bringing my "forum-sense" into the battles.

But landuse is not a one-man or one-group job though; we need a team more than ever.

There are 1.5 million recorded subscribers (members) in just a dozen off-road forums (I added them up). We have a strong voice if we start shouting with it – louder and longer and more often! Sure there is overlap between forums; but still, there are a lot of us who are NOT members of organizations or clubs and there are about 200 forums out there that I didn't count. THAT is where our New Year will make a difference in our trail access when we ALL become strong supporters of those groups fighting for us.

If you truly want a Happy New Year, then realize that it starts simply with a click to join (or renew) your memberships. I hope you will start with your national umbrella group that I now direct – the BlueRibbon Coalition (http://www.BlueRibbonCoalition.com). Then add the groups and clubs that make sense to you from there.

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Del Albright

About Me

Full time career landuse and access advocate, as well as an outdoor photojournalist capturing the fun of the great outdoors. Title: BlueRIbbon Coalition Director of Operations. Married to Stacie Albright.